Name That Trauma :: Reader Lauren B. on Suburban Savages

Hi there, I just stumbled upon your site after visiting The Dreamin’ Demon, and I am so glad I found you, perhaps you can help me figure out what movie it was that traumatized me as a kid. It’s a movie about a cannibalistic family living in the suburbs. It was made in the ’80s, possibly early ’90s, and it was a horror/comedy type movie. If memory serves me right the dad wore a pair of thick black horn-rimmed glasses.

The scene in the movie that freaked me out was when the family was all sitting down at the table sharing a meal, and one of the kids got into an argument with the dad, and the kid stabbed the dad in the leg (or hand) with a fork (or butter knife). I remember seeing this movie as a young child, and I am 27 years old now. This scene still sticks with me, and for the life of me I cannot remember the title of the movie. Can you help me??

Thanks so much!

— Lauren B.

UNK SEZ: AUNT JOHN got this one right off the bat! The horn-rimmed glasses and cannibal parents made him think of 1989’s PARENTS. Check out the trailer HERE and below I found a classic clip of SISKEL & EBERT discussing and disagreeing about the film! Thanks Lauren and thanks to DREAMIN’ DEMON for sending you our way!

I’m surprised Ebert didn’t like this one.
For me it perfectly captured how weird it is to be a kid… all the blanks you have to fill in with your own imagination.
I went through a period where I was sure my parents were having sexy witchcraft meetings after I went to bed… I was always snooping around trying to find ‘evidence’… but just because I didn’t find any doesn’t mean that wasn’t what they were doing.